Quantum State Manipulation with Ultra-Short Laser Pulses

Valery Milner
UBC Chemistry

Fast and efficient transfer of atoms and molecules from one quantum state to another is important in many areas of science. High-resolution spectroscopy, metrology, quantum computing and state-selective chemistry (to name just a few examples) all rely on the ability to prepare the system of interest in a well defined target state, while tolerating instrumental noise, de-coherence, and other imperfections of the environment. In this talk, I will describe our recent progress in achieving this goal with ultrafast lasers. I will show how by matching the temporal shape of a laser pulse to the dynamics of a system, one can perform fast and robust excitation of the desired coherent superposition of states on a femtosecond time scale.